Confidence Lost Of the many things I could not have known about grief following the death of my husband, Matt, was how worthless and inept I would feel. It made no sense. I had been through the excruciating experience of losing him. Why did I lose my own self-confidence? I was no longer able to function professionally for a long […]
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Dear Suicide Survivors: You are not alone. I know it feels that way, but I can assure you that there is help. I know you feel that no one can relate to what you’re going through, that your world is hopeless, and that your life will never be worth living. Sadly, I felt the exact same way. I’m not going […]
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Returning to Teach after a Major Loss Every day, walking back into my classroom was an immense challenge. For those unfamiliar with teaching—imagine performing in a theater, five days a week for five hours a day. It’s absolutely draining. And when you’re battling grief, it feels impossible. My colleagues were amazing, but there’s only so much that can be done […]
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The death of a child is so profound, it’s like no other loss. There’s no such thing as getting over the death of a child. Instead, bereaved parents must learn to adapt to a new life without our child’s physical presence. It’s part of the long, slow process of healing after the death of a child. Devastating Pain If you’re […]
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My Life in Grief I absolutely, freaking hate the saying “Life only gives you as much as you can handle.” If that’s the case, then just call me Atlas, baby, because apparently life thinks I can handle the weight of the world on my shoulders. I’ve endured a laundry list of traumatic events that has made everyone close to me […]
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Mother Loses Son to Addiction To all of my fellow parents of deceased children — mothers and fathers — I offer greetings. I too have suffered this unthinkable loss and know the grief that accompanies it. My son, Danny, died on July 1, 2008, from an overdose of alcohol and prescription drugs, a death all too common in this day […]
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A Grief Perspective A grief perspective is personal. It is an individual’s way of thinking about and understanding their own grief. As grief is unique to every person and every relationship, our perspectives will differ from each other. But sharing our differing perspectives may offer us new ways to contemplate our grief. Prior to retiring, I was a clinical psychologist […]
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DOCTOR ON A JOURNEY In an earlier Open to Hope essay, I wrote about the riveting After-Death experience of a friend I call Chief. The anesthesiologist had a heart attack 60 feet under water while scuba diving in 2007 and, by all measures, was clinically dead. (That’s why he insists on calling it an After-Death experience.) Chief wanted to write […]
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Dreams Die with Your Spouse One of the hardest struggles I’ve found about widowhood is that the life you had before pretty much dies with your spouse. Well, at least mine did. The hopes, dreams and plans that we made as a couple were buried with my husband. Every morsel of my being was changed because he is no longer […]
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The soul and grief are deeply intertwined in many spiritual and philosophical traditions. It’s only natural that after someone dies, those they leave behind will start to question and want to find meaning. Grief can lead individuals to ask questions, prompting them to think about the nature of existence and the soul’s relationship with the material world. This journey, though […]
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Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.
